‘Luscinia,’Elio called after me but I pretended I didn’t hear him. For once I wished we didn’t have a two-way bond so I could shut my eyes and pretend like I was somewhere, anywhere else. But the coping method that had worked when I was a child was lost to me now as I entered the bedroom and slammed the door behind me.
Someone had changed the sheets and opened the window, taking away the delicious scent of them and replacing it with cold night air that made me shiver.
‘Cini,’Nico tried and I felt him knock on the door.‘You do realize locking yourself in the room won’t work, right?’
I cursed my past self for not working harder to learn how to block them out. Past me had been romantic and sentimental—because why would I ever need to block out the loves of my life.
What a dumb bitch that woman was.
I could feel Elio’s impatience down the bond. ‘Cini, we have to do this or else our entire lives will be spent looking over our shoulders, waiting for your father to kill us.’
‘So you’re deciding to run headlong toward it?’I shot back, angry at them and angry at the situation.“Last time I checked that’s the literal definition of insanity!’
‘We have a plan and we won’t be alone. Edison Keane is going to help us.’
‘The same Edison Keane who was shot in the chest, like, yesterday?’I asked with a scoff.‘Please excuse me if that doesn’t make me feel any better.’
‘Baby, just open the door and we can talk about this like a pack,’Dante’s voice was so soft and imploring that I nearly gave in to him.
Then a wave of rage filled me as I got up and yanked the door open, hoping they could see and feel exactly how angry I was.
‘Why? It seems like you guys have already made up your mind while you were fucking me out of my mind. Don’t think I didn’t see you talking and trying to hide it.’
The alphas gathered in the hallway at least had the decency to look sheepish as they stared at me.
‘Talk,’I demanded, tapping my foot.‘Explain this grand plan of yours where you get rid of my father and take over the Amante family and somehow everything works out and we can be happy.’
They exchanged looks, almost like they were trying to dare each other to go first.
‘Well? I’m waiting,’I said gesturing for one of them to start.
‘Fine, I’ll do it you cowards.’Ranieri finally stepped to the front of the group, shooting his fellow alphas a glare.
‘Your father is holding a gala for his men at the Amante estate. All of his closest people will be there—the head of the snake if you will—we will infiltrate the party and take them out.’
I was fully aware of my father’s annual gala. I had never been allowed to attend, but I knew that it was a night where he and his men patted themselves on the back for another year of crime and money.
‘How many of your allies do you have?’I questioned, crossing my arms over my chest.
‘Enough,’he answered, his green eyes shifting away from mine unconvincingly.
‘And do you know how you are going to get in? The Amante estate isn’t exactly an easy place to sneak into.’
Elio stepped forward to stand next to Ranieri.‘We’re working on it.’
I scoffed, realizing they had no clue about the old service tunnels that ran under the estate. The ones that my great-grandfather used to use during the prohibition to ship out his booze to various speakeasies around the country.
They had spent their entire childhood running around the estate like it was their own, and yet they didn’t know that the entire thing could be accessed from underground with an entrance in the surrounding forest.
‘I can get you in,’I said, resigning myself to the insanity that they were proposing.‘But you have to take me with you.’
They all began talking in my head at once.
‘There is not a chance in—
‘Are you crazy?’
‘That is not happening.’
